Trial by Campfire
by Osaru Sensei
Summary: Two warriors duke it out in the woods. Who will come out on top?
**Holy heck, it's not Bumblebee but Arkos? Has the world gone mad?**

 **Not really, just felt like doing this one. It's almost pure combat straight through, so excuse me if any part of it sounds forced or poorly written; it's why you train after all.**

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The stars shone in the sky over the tenth forest training ground near the prestigious Beacon Academy, where a small campfire made the shadows of two combatants dance and stretch out into the darkness surrounding the area. One warrior, clad in bronze armour, went on the offensive against her opponent, her long, red hair swishing about as she moved, her emerald eyes constantly scanning for openings to strike at. She noted that there was a lot fewer of those than usual which, while it made it so much harder to finish her blonde attacker off, was actually pretty good considering they had only been at this for slightly over a year. Jaune Arc had potential. Pyrrha made a high strike against Jaune's temple, which he dodged. What he did not anticipate however was that it was merely a diversional opening strike in a double combo – Pyrrha dropped down for a leg sweep, which he only barely managed to avoid by a quick jump. He retaliated by way of a shield bash aimed at his instructor's own shield the moment she had risen from the leg sweep, which momentarily stunned her long enough for Jaune to tag her with his sword twice.

"Good job Jaune! Now let's try that again!" Pyrrha complimented her pupil. Jaune sighed with content and assumed his starting position.

"Told you I had been listening last ti-Whoa!" Jaune never finished his reply as Pyrrha swung her shield where his face had just been a second ago. Suddenly he realised why she had done that – she was teaching him to be observant for openings and then he recalled several similar occasions in previous combat sessions. Taking the lesson to heart, he leaned in with all his might behind his shield and rammed his opponent in the side, throwing her off-balance and stumbling backwards. _Good, he finally caught on. That's lesson one clear…_ She reached out with her magnetic semblance and pulled Jaune backwards by his armour, while she readied Miló's rifle form.

"Lesson number two…" she called out to Jaune as he skidded to a halt.

"… Your enemy will never hold back! Do not expect mercy on the battlefield!" She fired three times, all bounced on Jaune's shield and splintered the bark on the trees behind him. " _Dust_ , she's serious!" he thought to himself as he dashed forwards to re-engage. His target was ready however, already having transformed her weapon back into its sword form, lashing out towards him. He readjusted his course and swayed neatly to the left. Pyrrha moved to compensate, but a sharp pain in her right heel made her shout out in agony and crumple to the ground in excruciating pain.

"Pyrrha?! Are you okay?" Jaune rushed to her side.

"Yes Jaune, I'm…" She grunted in pain as Jaune helped her sit up. "… I'm fine." She finished weakly.

"You don't sound 'fine' to me, Pyrrha." Jaune eyed her worriedly.

"I guess I'm not as healed as I thought…" Pyrrha admitted. "At least my shoulder didn't hurt when you bashed our shields together earlier, so there's that." Jaune looked her in the eyes with a sad expression.

"You'd tell me if you ever have problems like this again, wouldn't you?"

"I promise, Jaune…" Pyrrha answered as she leaned in to kiss her boyfriend of the past year, with only the stars above as witness.

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 **AN: Yes, I made a funny in my intro text.**

 **Okay, I get if this is all very confusing for you. Obviously Pyrrha had went through with confronting Cinder up in Ozpin's office, seeing how she has been shot in the Achilles tendon. The difference here from the main timeline is that Ruby Rose was just a little bit faster up, so that she spooked Cinder enough to throw off her aim for the second, fatal shot to the chest, which instead hit Pyrrha's right shoulder. End result is a living but ailing Invincible Girl, and Arkos now being out in the open amongst RWBYJNPR.**

 **As always, thanks for the read.**

 **EDIT: Flow.**


End file.
